COVER STORY; A Prince Eternal

By Kathryn Shattuck

Published: April 3, 2005

IN 1941, Antoine de Saint-Exup?, a French pilot and writer who had exiled himself to New York after his homeland had surrendered to the Nazis during World War II, settled into a top-floor aerie on Central Park South and began to write. ''Flight to Arras,'' a recollection of a reconnaissance mission he undertook as the fall of France became imminent, appeared in 1942. It was followed, in early 1943, by ''Letter to a Hostage,'' dedicated to the 40 million French held captive by the Germans.

Then, two months later, an aberration. Reynal & Hitchcock published ''The Little Prince,'' a poetic short story written and illustrated by Saint-Exup? about a boy from a far-off planet with a halo of golden curls and an overreaching love for a rose. In it, the boy teaches the secret of what is important in life to a pilot who has crash-landed in the Sahara.

Saint-Exup?'s fans were dismayed at his sudden trajectory into left field with what they considered to be a trifle, chock-full of talking animals, unflattering adult caricatures and breezy mysticism. The public reception was cold. However, years later, some of Saint-Exup?'s harshest critics came to consider ''The Little Prince'' his most profound work, the entirety of his philosophy wrapped up in a deceptively simple package.

The story has since been translated into more than 230 languages and dialects, and on Wednesday at 9 p.m., WNET/Thirteen's ''Great Performances'' will present Rachel Portman's operatic version of it, with David Charles Abell conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra. Directed by Francesca Zambello, the special is adapted from the premiere 2003 production of ''The Little Prince'' at the Houston Grand Opera. The cast includes Joseph McManners in the title role; the New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes in a reprise of the role of the Pilot, which he originated in Houston; Mairead Carlin as the Rose; Sir Willard White as the King; Lesley Garrett as the Fox; Tome Randle as the Snake; and a 35-member children's chorus.

''All grown-ups were first children, but few of them remember it,'' Saint-Exup? wrote in the dedication of ''The Little Prince,'' setting the tone of a tale that blurs the boundaries between adult and child, philosophy and fantasy.

It was this ambiguity that first captivated Ms. Portman, who has composed 70 film scores and in 1997 became the first woman to win an Academy Award for best original musical score, for ''Emma.''

''I wanted to write an opera that I could take my own children to,'' she said in a telephone interview from her home in London. ''Opera is a world that most children have been turned off to by the time they reach young adulthood, and I wanted to write something that would draw them in. I read 'The Little Prince' as a child, and when I revisited it with a view to writing a children's opera, I thought: 'Oh, yes, I was incredibly affected by it. This is the story.'''

''Inasmuch as 'The Little Prince' itself is certainly a fairly difficult book to understand as a child, it is a children's opera, and it isn't,'' she said. ''Most simply, it is a story about a child that is understood by an adult, and I think that's why it is so wonderful to reread as an adult.''

The opera's journey from concept to creation began when Ms. Portman let her friend Philip Glass know she wanted to write an opera, and he in turn contacted Ms. Zambello, whose work includes ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' for the Metropolitan Opera, scheduled for a May 13 premiere.

''Rachel came to meet me, and I of course knew her work,'' Ms. Zambello said in a telephone interview from France, where she was directing a revival of ''War and Peace'' for the Paris Opera. ''There aren't that many film composers who have a theatrical drive and a big overview, but I heard that in her music.''

''And she wanted to write a piece that was a family piece, which I am 100 percent supportive of and feel that's missing from our operatic literature,'' she said. ''Anything that helps to develop new works, populist works, and speaks to a broad audience is something I want to work on.''

The women then began the arduous process of acquiring the rights to the book from the Saint-Exup? estate. This included agreeing to something rarely done. ''We had to write most of the work before they would give us the rights,'' Ms. Zambello said. ''We had to audition as we went along.''

With the playwright Nicholas Wright, who transformed Saint-Exup?'s words into the opera's libretto, ''they formed a happy collaboration,'' Ms. Zambello said, and the estate granted them the rights -- but not to perform in New York or London. Ms. Zambello persuaded David Gockley of the Houston Grand Opera to give ''The Little Prince'' a home, and after the favorable critical and public response to the Houston production, the estate granted the three of them expanded rights, including those for film and for larger cities.

In his review of the Houston premiere in The New York Times, Bernard Holland called it ''a lovely opera.''

''Like opera at its 16th-century beginnings, Ms. Portman's work lifts words in the air and carries them along,'' he said, adding, ''It might do well on Broadway.''

While there is no word of moving it to Manhattan's theater district yet, ''The Little Prince'' will arrive at New York City Opera in November. Joseph McManners, who had only a single community-theater performance under his belt when he was chosen over thousands of other children for the television adaptation, will again have the title role.

''I had no idea that this could ever happen to me, but it's been the greatest thing in my life,'' said Joseph, now 12, adding that he hopes to pursue a professional career as a singer.

''Joseph has that sense of being an adult in a child's body, that ethereal quality,'' Ms. Zambello said. ''Part of the whole goal with 'The Little Prince' was to create new talent, create new music. We wanted children that would normally not be in this activity, and I have to say we succeeded in our mission.''

While his own star has already ascended, Mr. Rhodes found the experience no less moving. ''Rachel's music has such an innate expressiveness and poignancy to it, and Francesca is brilliant at getting her performers to produce exactly the effect she is looking for,'' he said by telephone from Sydney. ''And it's always an enchanting experience when there is a child in your realm.''

Which surely must have been what Saint-Exup? was thinking at the end of his story, when the Prince vanishes into thin air. ''Wait a while beneath a star,'' he wrote, ''and if a child arrives with golden hair, who laughs and disappears, make sure you tell me he's returned.''

In 1944, Saint-Exup?, who had joined the American war effort the year before, was shot down over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. The wreckage of his plane was discovered a year ago off the coast of his beloved France, but his body has never been found.

Photos: On the cover: Sir Willard White as the King and Joseph McManners as the Little Prince. (Photo by Adrian Brooks)(pg. 1); Joseph McManners as the Little Prince, left, and above with Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the Pilot. (Photographs of the production by Adrian Brooks)(pg. 4); Francesca Zambello, above, director of ''The Little Prince''; Rachel Portman, right, the opera's composer; and Mairead Carlin, below, as the Rose. (Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times); (Photo by Thirteen/WNET)(pg. 5)